Archiving Sensor Data - Applied to Dam Safety Information

Abstract

The consequences of structural failures in large civil engineering structures are potentially catastrophic, varying from high economic impacts to unrecoverable environmental damage or loss of life. To prevent that, these structures can be continuously monitored, therefore the management and preservation of the resulting data is crucial to support decisions concerning structural safety. However, preserving data also entails several risks and threats, comprising strong safety requirements. This paper analyzes the scenario of civil engineering safety, presenting the current systems used at the Portuguese National Laboratory for Civil Engineering to manage and preserve sensor data. The main risks that can impede the digital preservation of data are discussed and a solution is proposed where sensor data is objectively described and packaged in order to be reused in the future. This includes controlling the extraction of data from the operational systems, describing the representation of data through a Metadata Registry, and package the context information using a METS aggregator.